Aliyev on post-war situation: 'The results of the war will remain unchanged'

What’s happening in Armenia? How are the terms of the trilateral declaration of November 10, 2020 being met? Why is the Chinese vaccine being used in Azerbaijan? What will happen to the 60 Armenian citizens captured in Karabakh?

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev spoke with journalists yesterday and answered all these questions.

• Georgia’s political crisis – explained
• On the brink of civil war? Armenian political crisis continues

On February 26, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev held a press conference for representatives of local and foreign media, which lasted four hours.

On the situation in Armenia

“The events taking place in Armenia are the internal affair of Armenia.

… Today Armenia is in such a difficult situation that the processes taking place there to a large extent undermine the foundations of the country’s statehood. The former and current leaders of Armenia are to blame for this, because for twenty years the Kocharian-Sargsyan junta has actually led Armenia to an abyss and led to a crisis situation,” Aliyev said.

“We have consistently isolated Armenia from all international, regional projects. Our policy was to economically undermine, destroy and isolate Armenia. I have never hidden this and have repeatedly said that as long as our lands are under occupation, we will pursue this policy,” Aliyev said.

On the fulfillment of the conditions of the tripartite statement

“The results of the war remain and will remain unchanged. The statement signed on November 10 is being executed and must be fully implemented. A significant part of the provisions of this statement has already been implemented. But there are issues that are a topic of discussion today.

A statement dated November 10, 2020, signed by the presidents of Russia, Azerbaijan, as well as the prime minister of Armenia, put an end to the second Karabakh war, which lasted 44 days.

I hope that despite the situation in Armenia, the statement signed on November 10 will be implemented. Otherwise, Armenia will find itself in an even more difficult situation. That is, there is not so much choice before Armenia,” Aliyev said.

About the coronavirus vaccine

Answering a journalist’s question on the progress of vaccination of the population in Azerbaijan, Aliyev said: “We started vaccination on January 18. We are vaccinating with the Chinese-made CoronaVac vaccine.

We should have received the AstraZeneca vaccine long ago. We have not received it, we haven’t received it for several months. Sputnik has not been received. Pfizer and Moderna should have been received via COVAX, but they did not. And we are not told when we will get it. It is good that our Chinese partners are fulfilling their obligations. We have the means to buy it. And what about those who do not have? What is it for these people to die? This means that the rich will vaccinate themselves, take production for themselves, as they say, ignore completely elementary norms of human behavior, and poor countries must suffer. What kind of equality are we talking about?

For the CoronaVac vaccine, 4 million doses have been contracted. Already every day I am told that sometimes 15-20,000 people are being vaccinated. So in this direction we will use all the opportunities. The corresponding funds have been allocated for this. We will just wait for vaccines from manufacturers.”

On the 60 Armenian citizens detained in Karabakh

“After the end of hostilities, according to our information, on the 20th of November, a detachment of more than 60 people was sent from Armenia – from the Shirak region, from the city of Gyumri and adjacent regions, which, it is not clear how, through the Azerbaijani army.

It turned out that this was a sabotage group that carried out attacks both on our military personnel and on civilians. As a result of these acts of sabotage and terrorist attacks, we have four killed among military personnel and one among civilians – this is a representative of one mobile operator who was traveling to the city of Shusha and was ambushed – and several were wounded.

Naturally, we carried out a counter-terrorist operation, as a result of which several terrorists were completely neutralized, and more than 60 were captured.

Today, when they are trying to call them prisoners of war, I think that they deliberately distort the essence of the issue. A prisoner of war cannot be 20 days after the war. The prisoners of war that we had, we returned them all. And we returned them earlier than they returned them to us. These people do not fall into this category. These are terrorists and saboteurs. And any speculation on the part of Armenia or some countries is inappropriate,” Aliyev said.